Wind power is a prominent form of renewable energy being used all over the world today. However, wind power can be intermittent and highly variable. Wind speeds and the resulting power vary over different time scales and depend on various factors such as weather, temperature, height of the mill, size of turbine blades, etc.
Merchant producers and consumers interact using wholesale electricity markets such as day-ahead and real-time (RT) markets, intraday markets, and hour-ahead markets. In day-ahead markets, producers and consumers submit bids and requirements to an independent system operator (ISO) that solves security constrained unit commitment (SCUC) and security constrained economic dispatch (SCED) problems to determine the amount of electricity bought from each producer and the marginal prices of electricity at each location for the next day. In RT markets, based on actual consumption and production, market participants may bid their remaining resources, and an ISO solves a SCED problem periodically (for example, every five minutes).
Conventional power generation sources are penalized if they deviate from their commitments. Due to variability and limited predictability of renewable resources, existing wind power optimization approaches lack a proper mechanism for wind power producers to participate in day-ahead markets. Currently, wind power is settled at the RT price or sold on long-term power purchase agreements.
Additionally, in general, if a grid load is low and generation is high (for example, at night, when wind speeds are higher), wind plant operators cannot sell the power to the grid and resources are wasted. Accordingly, existing approaches are not optimal for wind farm operators as the operators are unable to get the maximum economic gain for the power they generate.
Additionally, existing grid storage approaches include the use of batteries. However, such approaches include battery costs that are significant and such approaches also face sustainability challenges.
Accordingly, there is a need for variability to be reduced for integration into grid and electricity markets at a constant rate.